Comparison of the Hero’s Journey: The Lion King Movie and The Odyssey (Essay Example)

The Hero’s Journey is a Plotline that many stories within literature follow. The Hero’s journey showcases three main steps: Departure, Initiation, and Rebirth.  Within these three steps, the actual story may vary. When comparing the stories of the movie The Lion King and the epic The Odyssey one can see that within the guidelines of the Hero’s Journey, these have very different storylines. This can be shown through the subsections of Meeting with the Mentor, Allies and Enemies, and Resolution. 

Within the first step of departure, there are differences shown when the protagonist meets with their mentor. In the lion king, Simba’s mentor is his evil uncle Scar. When he encourages Simba to embark on his journey, he does this with ulterior motives. Scar’s main motive is to become king of the pride rock. He attempts to achieve this by murdering the current King (who was Simba's father). After he does this, he blames Simba and tells him to run away to avoid punishment. After Scar kills Mufasa he tells Simba; “But the king is dead, and if it weren’t for you he’d still be alive…Run, Run away and never return” (The Lion King). From this quote, one can see that Scar is willing to do whatever it takes to become the king of pride rock. He was not trying to push Simba to be his best self, Scar was trying to force Simba to fail in his journey.  This is unlike the journey of Odysseus. Odysseus was his own mentor. He dictated his journey based on his own knowledge, rather than listening to the opinions of others trying to help him. However, Odysseus’s “meeting with the mentor” was an act that helped preserve life rather than the fatal actions of Scar. In the Odyssey, Odysseus was faced with the choice of either not embarking on his inevitable journey for 20 years or his child would die by his hand. He chose to save his son, Telemachus and he began his journey of 20 years.  This shows that Odysseus as a mentor had the intent to help others while Scar as a mentor only did it with the sole purpose of attending to his own desires of superiority.

Another example of the differences between the Hero’s Journey of The Lion King and The Odyssey can be found within the Allies and Enemies sections of the Initiation. Through The Odyssey, Odysseus proves to be a terrible leader. After He and his army won the Trojan war, he began his 20-year journey home. Throughout the book, he leads his army to many places that caused their journey to span over 20 years. This shows the lack of leadership skills that Odysseus has. One example of this begins when Odysseus and his men arrive at the island of Circe. Initially, Circe was the enemy and turned Odysseus’s men into pigs. However, with the help of the god Hermes Odysseus avoids this fate and uses Circe’s love for him to help out his crew and she turns them back into humans. One would think that after this  Odysseyus would continue on his journey. However, he decided to stay with Circe due to his undying love for her. In the book, this is shown when it says “And there we sat at ease/ day in, day out, till a year had run its course” (Fagles, 10: 515-516). From this quote, one can see that Odysseus ended up staying at Circe’s Island for one year. He was too focused on his own desires rather than focusing on his men and their need to get back home. Odysseus shows his selfishness and that he only noticed and cared about himself. This caused him to lose many of his men throughout the rest of the book. This is unlike the leadership of Simba. At the time, Pride Rock was under the rule of his uncle Scar and his Hyenas. The land was desolate, depressing, and in need of a new leader. Originally, Simba refused to go back to his home to be the rightful leader of Pide Rock. However, as time passes and he listens to others' opinions, he realizes that even though he does not want to, he must return home to be king. This shows the improvement that Simba made as a leader. Similar to Odysseus, he thought about his own reputation and needs rather than the needs of his fellow lions. Nevertheless, when he takes the time and thought to consider what the impact he could have, he was willing to take a risk to save others. 

Lastly, another example of the differences between the Hero’s Journey of The Odyssey and The Lion King can be found within the resolution section of the Return. In The Lion King, Simba returns to Pride Rock to find it destroyed under the rule of Scar. He and all the lionesses rally against Scar and the Hyenas. Scar makes the Lionesses believe that Simba was the one who killed the former king Mufasa. However, after Scar and Simba battle, Scar admits to his crime (of killing Mufasa) and when Simba is faced with the choice to either kill Scar or have mercy, he chooses mercy. This is shown when Simba says “No scar, I’m not like you….. run, run away Scar and never return.” (The Lion King). This shows that Simba treated others with kindness and tries to have the benefit of the doubt for others. He wished the best for others, however, he was willing to do what was necessary for the good of his people. Unlike the resolution of The Lion King, the resolution for The Odyssey has a more violent turn. Odysseus comes home to Ithica after his 20-year journey. While he was away, many suitors arrived to marry his wife Penelope because most believed Odysseus to be dead. He is enraged by this, but he disguises himself as a beggar to observe the behavior of the suitors. Many of the suitors were domineering to Odysseus and mocked him for various reasons. Then, with the help of his son Telemachus, the goddess Athena, and other allies, he kills all of Penelope's suitors. From this one can see that Odysseus does not have the best judgment at times. He could have done many things to the suitors to punish them. However, he chose the harshest option; death. He went straight to violence, and not reason. 

The basic plot of The Heros Journey can be used to create some of the greatest literature, movies, and other creative media. When comparing the two examples of the movies The Lion King and the epic poem The Odyssey, one can see that the story heavily varies. This was shown within the three sections of the Heros Journey: meeting with the mentor, Allies and Enemies, and the resolution. The two protagonists and their stories seem to have nothing alike however when taking a deeper dive into the well-known and loved stories, one can notice the Heros Journey flowing within.